Grandeau to JCOPE: Want my name? Visit my website

Tuesday’s meeting of the spanking-new Joint Commission on Public Ethics kicked off with Chapter XXIV of “The Adventures of David Grandeau,” in which JCOPE Chair Janet DiFiore’s request that members of the public in attendance at the meeting should identify themselves — which is, frankly, a little weird — drew this response from the former executive director of the Temporary State Commission on Lobbying:

“I thank you for the opportunity to identify myself, but this is a public meeting,” Grandeau said, “and given the amount of secrecy that this commission has acted with, I think it’s ironic, hypocritical and paranoid to ask those of us from the public to identify ourselves when there are members of the commission … that don’t have to identify themselves. However! In the spirit of openness — ”

“Thank you,” DiFiore said brightly.

” — I will tell you that you can find my identity at my website, which is www.davidgrandeau.com,” he said.

“Thank you, sir, and good morning to you,” DiFiore said.

That settled, the panel moved on to setup business. While discussion of possible candidates for JCOPE’s executive director position had to wait for the closed-door executive session, committee reports included the news that it had spent $2.7 million of its budgeted $3.4 million ceiling for the current fiscal year, and was expecting to take in roughly $538,000 in revenues (derived from lobbyist registration fees, late fees and more).

Commission member Ravi Batra noted that since JCOPE was charged with overseeing two branches of government (executive and legislative) while the old Commission on Public Integrity handled just had one (executive), shouldn’t it get “a lot” more staff than the currently anticipated 45 employees?

“Well, this is the amount of money we’ve been budgeted, and we’re going to set about our work,” DiFiore said, adding that an increase would be considered if the need arose.

JCOPE will need to acquire new computers to replace seven-year-old models that lack memory and take forever to boot up. That upgrade will likely have to wait a few months in order to take advantage of a statewide computer procurement.

Commissioner Pat Bulgaro said the panel has taken on COPI’s 10-year lease on its offices on Broadway in Albany despite the fact that, even when JCOPE is at full strength, the space could accommodate almost twice the staff — leading to a likely space surplus of 8,000 to 10,000 square feet. The annual cost of the lease is $612,000, not including utilities but including furniture.

Bulgaro said JCOPE should contact OGS — currently conducting restacking across agencies — about possibly using that unused space, or possibly swapping JCOPE’s space for state work that might be able to fill out the Broadway space in more efficient fashion.

Batra said JCOPE should remember its need for “elbow room” that would preserve the decorum of its deliberations and staff work.